Businessman gets bankruptcy reprieve

Andrew Krukziener. Photo / Gilda Kirkpatrick

Property developer Andrew Krukziener has won a last-minute reprieve from a bid to make him bankrupt.

A bankruptcy application by the Inland Revenue Department, due to be heard in the Auckland High Court this week, has been adjourned.

Krukziener said it was granted after a vote on Friday saw 89 per cent of creditors agree to a compromise deal.

"It was agreed yesterday with the IRD's lawyer that we would adjourn it to a day in the future," he said.

Krukziener said he'd sold all the assets he could to repay debts after the collapse of his Metropolis development. "Everything I could sell from a control perspective, I did," he said.

He and wife Gitta Saidi rent an $8.5 million mansion in St Heliers, where their 2006 Mercedes-Benz was parked yesterday.

A 2003 BMW, not registered to Krukziener or Saidi, was under covers in the garage.

Asked if his lifestyle was that of someone on the brink of bankruptcy, Krukziener said: "It depends on perspective, I think. We've certainly faced some significant changes in the last few years."

His lavish, five-bedroom mansion is on the market but Krukziener said he had no connection with the sale and was not the beneficiary of the trust which owned it.

He was "fortunate to still be renting in that property," he said.

One of Krukziener's former companies, now in his wife's name, still owns a block of waterfront land in Glendowie.

It was put on the market two years ago but failed to sell. Krukziener said the property was being restructured.